Report: Nine discussed Fairfax merger
Nine looks to Fairfax or Southern Cross as a logical media merger, according to reports.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
There are two reports today that shed light on Nine’s interest in a merger with another media player.
Fairfax reports Nine advisers approached Fairfax Media in late January to explore what a $3.3 billion merger of the two media companies would resemble.
Fairfax, which has joint ownership of Stan with Nine, accepted the meeting as a courtesy. But according to a statement from Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood last year it has no interest in a merge.
“So there can be no doubt: Fairfax Media is not interested in buying a stake of any size in NEC,” he said.
Meanwhile The Australian reports CEO Hugh Marks recently briefed investors on a $2.2 billion merger with Southern Cross Media Group. He told potential investors in Hong Kong & Singapore there was a Âpotential $90 million a year on offer from revenue and cost synergies.
But if Malcolm Turnbull proceeds with a double dissolution election for July 2, a media reform package, dropping the reach rule and 2 out of 3 rule, would be delayed.
2 Responses
That’s like the captains of the Costa Concordia and the Titanic talking about lashing their ships together as they take on water.
Fairfax doesn’t have any money to buy any of Nine. The only profitable part of Fairfax is the real estate publishing. The radio stations about break even and they have been failing to offload them at a profit for a decade. Nine would be taking over Fairfax offering Nine shareholdings to Fairfax investors.
Nine doesn’t want to be only in FTA and Stan, two businesses that will be heavily hit by Netflix. They want to diversify to hedge and cross promote. They don’t have much publishing anymore unlike Seven (though that is not very profitable) or radio like Fairfax or Southern Cross.
Fairfax is sacking even more of its reporters and is now little more than an aggregator crazy bloggers.